Straight up: I volunteered for this mission. I didn't necessarily want the
assignment, but I'd been seeing the title showing up on the weekly DVD Verdict
product list for almost two months without being chosen, and it was almost as
if…

…as if it chose me.

But, why? After all, the show ran on Lifetime—"Television for
Women," right?

I'd seen the ads, featuring a group of military MILFs, sporting camouflage
fatigues and come-hither looks. Instead of sexy, they looked silly to me! Didn't
these people realize there was a war on, that men and women were dying horrible,
bloody deaths on a daily basis in the God-forsaken climes of Afghanistan?!

What I came to discover was that Army Wives was ultimately the victim
of miscommunication and misunderstanding. The sexist marketing slogan of the
cable network has absolutely nothing to do with this scripted, searing
examination of service life (based on Tanya Biank's non-fiction book, Under
The Sabers: The Unwritten Code Of Army Wives), which in fact, counts a male
spouse (Sterling K. Brown, Our
Idiot Brother) among its titular group.

Not only is this show aware of the situation in Afghanistan, it spends a
good bit of the season hunkered down in the thick of it, including a
nerve-rattling firefight that serves as its centerpiece. And death?
Unfortunately, it's everywhere.

If you've been following the story so far, you'll remember that season six
ended very much up in the air (pun inevitable), with a planeload of Fort
Marshall's finest—several leading characters included—heading into
treacherous weather, on its way to the battleground. Meanwhile, base commander
General Michael Holden (Brian McNamara, Short Circuit) takes an emergency phone
call.

The good news is that the plane touched down safely. The bad news? Holden's
wife Claudia Joy (Kim Delaney, CSI:
Miami) has died of heart failure.

It probably shouldn't come as a shock, considering the woman's sudden spate
of health problems (she'd recently been diagnosed with Diabetes, and undergone a
kidney transplant), but of course, the shock and devastation of losing the title
group's unofficial leader has a profound effect on everyone, and it permeates
each episode thereafter. Amazingly, given this last fact, year seven of Army
Wives is not bogged down in morbidity. Unlike most series losing a primary
character, it seems to elapse in real time—at least, in terms of the
survivors striving to adjust and move on, while being occasionally blindsided by
intense flashes of grief.

Season six was also notable for its purging of principal characters from its
rolls: Roxy (Sally Pressman, Scandal) and
Pamela (Brigid Brannagh, Over There) found themselves pulling up stakes
as their husbands were reassigned to different posts. Indeed, Fort Marshall
itself underwent a major transition. Rechristened Joint Base Marshall Bring, the
compound set about reconfiguring to accommodate incoming Air Force operations,
resulting in a shared command center. Ring out the old, ring in the new.

Enter Air Force Colonel Katherine 'Kat' Young (Brooke Shields, Lipstick Jungle). The wing
commander first lands with a resounding thud; her attempts at establishing
authority misinterpreted as uncooperative—even
combative—behavior.

Though Brooke Shields might be the last person one would imagine as a
hard-assed military careerist, her casting couldn't be more ingenious. Who
better to understand the nervy desperation of a woman under pressure to assert
her strength in a systematically macho-dominated environment than a cultural
icon best remembered for Calvin Klein ads, a string of celebrity ex-boyfriends
(including Michael Jackson and George Michael), and The Blue Lagoon?

Navigating the hairpin turns necessary to transform Kat from an officious
shrew into one of the strongest (and most sympathetic) characters of the season
would be no mean feat for any actress, but Shield's triumphant turn here surely
represents her finest work to date.

Perhaps even more surprising is the astounding work done by ex-pop idol
Jesse McCartney (Wish Gone Amiss),
playing Private Tim Truman, a (get this) teenage hayseed fresh from a little
town in the Midwest, who's married his high school sweetheart (Elle McLemore,
excellent as Holly, his sweet, wide-eyed and innocent wife) and left her to fend
for herself while heads off on his first deployment. The horrors of warfare and
PTSD are among the souvenirs he brings home with him.

Corny and rote though all this may sound, there's not a whiff of
unbelievability about the events portrayed, as anyone who's followed the news
about the war's progression and its effects on those with skin in the game can
attest. There's a razor-thin line between cliché and history repeating
itself; for better and worse, Army Wives manages it as sure-footedly as
an expert tightrope walker. Okay, there's a notable lack of non-photogenic
people on display, but this is television, after all!

Looking nearly as good as star Catherine Bell (Bruce Almighty) are the 1.78:1 anamorphic
transfers in this ABC studios release. You won't miss a whistling shotgun shell
with the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, either. English SDH, French and
Spanish subtitles are available, as are (slight) extras in the form of deleted
scenes (mostly heads and tails) and a Blooper reel—whoopee!

Sadly, the folks at Lifetime have recently decided to demobilize the Army
Wives, making these thirteen episodes a bittersweet coda, but cheer up, and
always remember: